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The govt. already taxes cellphone users in order to pay for their free cellphone scheme for the poor. Now they have got an interesting mix of companies on board for more subsidized "necessities". Check your cable bill for the taxes and fees

Cable companies said Wednesday that they will offer Internet service for $9.95 per month to homes with children that are eligible for free school lunches.

The offer will start next summer and is part of an initiative the Federal Communications Commission cobbled together to get more U.S. homes connected to broadband.

The broadband adoption gap in the U.S. is very large, and the costs of digital exclusion are high and getting higher," Genachowski said.

The initiative, called Connect-to-Compete, also includes Microsoft Corp., which pledges to sell PCs with its Office software suite for $250 to low-income families. A firm called Redemtech is offering to sell refurbished computers for $150, including shipping.

For those who can't afford those prices, Morgan Stanley is pledging to develop a lending program for community-based financial institutions.

Comcast Corp., the largest cable company and the country's largest Internet service provider, is already offering broadband to $9.95 to low-income families, with a 1.5 megabit per second download speed. It offered to do that to get regulators to approve its acquisition of NBC Universal approved.

Six major corporations own 90% of all the major news outlets.

The median net worth of a member of Congress climbed to $913,000, a 15 percent increase from 2004 to 2010. During the same period, the net worth of the average American dropped 8 percent."The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One", William K. Black, former bank regulator